A Very Exciting Day

Yesterday was a very exciting day indeed.

First off - the Grandbaby was given his name! He's called Tatsuki and he seems to be thriving. He and Kaori are still in the hospital. Austin tells me that mothers and babies routinely stay in hospital for around a week in Japan. And he says that the hospital is more like a hotel - so I suppose that Kaori and Tatsuki will understandably be reluctant to return home!!



Austin and Tatsuki - I don't know who took this photo but I assume Kaori


The second exciting thing was that one of our students carried the Olympic Torch for a leg when it was in Sheffield and yesterday he brought his torch in for us to see.  If you carried the torch you were entitled to keep yours, but you had to pay £250 for it, which had seemed rather expensive to me. Until I saw it. Not only are they really rather beautiful, they are also surprisingly heavy, plus they are made of proper metal and they are properly made. I can now see why they are as expensive as they are!  The arrival of an Olympic Torch in the Learning Centre generated a considerable level of excitement. Staff came from everywhere to admire it.  And, for a donation to the Children's Hospital - we were allowed to hold it :-)

Frannie and an Olympic Torch

You may be aware that we have had the most amazingly wet June. It has rained and rained and rained and rained and RAINED.  Yesterday the rain combined with a warm and humid day to produce the most astonishing thunderstorms and downpours.  I was on the desk on Level 4 in the afternoon when the rains hit. It was rather like being in a viewing platform on the inside of a huge waterfall. And the poor students who happened to be on their way into the building came in looking like kittens who had accidentally fallen into a fish pond!

And then the storm went away and the sun came out and the temperature went up and the evening was warm and still and sunny and beautiful.

And we went to The Nettle for dinner - discovering when we got there that their Thursday Evening Steak nights had transformed over the previous month or so into Thursday Evening Fish Nights.  We are both partial to a nice piece of fish (and if you are not, you can still select from the regular menu) so we were perfectly happy. I had a truly sumptuous asparagus, bacon and poached egg starter followed by a nice piece of snapper with chips. The Builder had a cod cheek starter and a sea bass main course. We neither of us had room for dessert (this might be because we had positively SCOFFED the substantial pieces of very fresh and very tasty bread which was on our table when we got there. We never learn!!!!!!!)

And then we had a beautiful drive home from The Nettle, in the evening sunshine.

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